REVIEW: Elson & their new single, ‘Open My Eyes’
Grimsby shoegazers Elson return with atmospheric new single ‘Open My Eyes’, a song that sounds like the music you’d hear staring into the bathroom at a bar whilst trying to stand up straight.
With low, pensive vocals reminiscent of Grian Chatten’s Romance-era croon, vocalist Owen Kimble paints a picture of emotional repression and a longing for communication, asking “…how many words do we hold back inside?” against a wall of whirlpool guitars. The guitars here certainly carry that jangling, melodic quality The Cure perfected, but in presentation they’re closer to Dinosaur Jr.’s cover of ‘Just Like Heaven’ than Robert Smith & Co.’s original; this is pop-songwriting for sure, but the delivery method has the BOSS DS-1 dialled up to almost Kurt Cobain levels. By layering a jigsaw of interweaving lines over one another, Elson have created a mosaic of spiky, post-punk* guitars that reach each corner of the mix and give the three-piece an echoing, expansive sound.
The real secret weapon here though is the rhythm section. Bassist Kieran Pykett cuts through the mix with a front-and-centre performance of descending lines that helps tether those spaced-out guitars firmly to planet earth with dramatic chord outlines. Whilst the thundering low frequencies of drummer Owen Armitage may initially be the standout, it’s the high-end information being provided that’s vital for the success of this track; every cymbal at the top of the mix here gives the song that clattering, speed-limit propulsion that works so well.
Elson fit comfortably into the current landscape of shoegaze-adjacent indie rock alongside contemporaries like Been Stellar and Sprints and they certainly make sense in terms of the musical lineage of bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain but, importantly, ‘Open My Eyes’ doesn’t present itself as an homage to the genre’s history or overtly work to position itself in the current scene. In fact, what’s so exciting about the canon Elson find themselves in is, perhaps in the spirit of shoegaze’s unofficial original tagline: “The Scene that Celebrates Itself”, the fact that it thrives on the coexistence of and collaboration between bands drawing from similar wells of influence and turning those ideas into something completely new. Here, Elson present a defiantly moody alt-rock instrumental that just so happens to play under a towering pop vocal.
Turn up the speakers/headphones/phone-playing-music-out-loud-on-the-bus and play this one as loud as is medically advisable.
*Yes, the term is overused, but until someone comes up with a better descriptor for guitars that sound like the musical equivalent of a neon sign, I’m sticking with it.
Words: Sam Wilkinson
